New Sports Twitter App "Beyond the Box"

"Beyond the Box" was released this Thursday for the iPad and iPad mini. This new app is specific to sports and Twitter. The app allows you to choose your favorite teams within the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. The app aggregates all real-time content from 1,000 media sources and 2,000 players. This app differs from other sports apps such as ESPN's ScoreCenter app because there are no sponsorships or censorship. There are no limitations. The Beyond the Box app can also be used for events such as the NFL Draft. The app is user friendly and makes filter content for sports much easier than using your own Twitter feed. The creator says in the future they are considering adding college and international sports to the mix. Hopefully the app will be available for the iPhone soon because I will definitely download this app.

For more apps for sports fanatics, check out this article http://mashable.com/2012/08/16/sports-apps/

Highest Paid College Basketball Coaches

Ever wonder how much top NCAA Division I Men's Basketball coaches get paid? Today I stumbled upon a slide show that shows the top 21 highest paid basketball coaches. Spoiler alert: number 21 is Roy Williams of UNC and number 1 is Coach K. There is a brief description of what their pay entails and benefits.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/04/04/mark-emmert-ncaa-final-four-auburn-rutgers/2053645/

After viewing the slideshow and how much these coaches are paid, do you think they are paid too much?

Decision on Rutgers Coach Mike Rice

Rutgers Men's Basketball coach, Mike Rice, is under review after a video of him at practice aired on ESPN's "Outside the Lines". The video showed Rice throwing basketballs at players, shoving, grabbing and using gay slurs. Rutgers is expected to make a decision today, Wednesday, April 3rd.

Rice is suspended and has been under review since last summer. Tim Pernetti, Athletic Director at Rutgers, has already suspended Rice for three games this past December, fined him $50,000, and ordered him to go to anger management classes. Pernetti has a huge decision to make. In an article on ESPN.com, Pernetti says that he must do what's right for the reputation of the university and protect the players. Rice was Pernetti's first major hire as an AD in 2010. Rice is 44-51 at Rutgers, including 16-38 in the Big East. Prior to Rutgers, he went 73-31 in three seasons at Robert Morris.

Many people are saying that Mike Rice should be fired, no questions asked. Ray Allen, a member of the University of Connecticut's board of directors and guard for the Miami Heat, told ESPN that
"it was despicable, throwing the ball at them -- it made me want to fight [Rice]. It made me want to fight this guy. Because that was me -- wanting to learn, making mistakes.

"You're not doing it on purpose. You're trying to learn. And that's what coaches should do -- you teach. Yelling at kids and throwing the ball at them, there's no place to that."

Allen also said he would try to get Rice fired had the incidents occurred at UConn.

"I would do everything I could to make sure that coach got fired -- in any sport -- because there's no place for that," he said.

What are your thoughts on this controversy?

Google Glass

Earlier this week Google officially launched Google Glass. These "glasses" can do just about anything. Well supposedly. Glass is still in it's test phases, so it is not available to purchase yet, however, consumers that are dying to try them can submit a 50 words or less "application" via Google+ or Twitter using the hashtag #ifihadglass. Sounds too good to be true, right? If you are chosen to be an "Explorer" (that is what Google is calling the people who want to use Glass), you must pre-order a Glass for $1500 plus tax AND attend a special event in New York, San Francisco or L.A.

What's so great about Google Glass anyways? Basically it's all hands free and has all functions of a cell phone. Features include taking pictures and videos, video chat, GPS, speak to send a message, a feature similar to Siri from Apple, along with many others. It will be interesting to see how long this product lasts and if it ever make it to retail stores.

If you're interesting in learning more about Google Glass, check out it's website. It's very classy and bold. So there's tons of white space. Which is appropriate.

Google Glass

#ifihadglass - Link to the instructions to apply

Conan Google Glass - Link to video of Conan O'Brien making fun of Google Glass

100 Greatest Sports Photos of All Time

If you're looking to kill some time today, check out Sports Illustrated 100 Greatest Sports Photos of All Time. You should recognize most athletes and photos. What do you notice about most of the photos? Enjoy! :)

Sports Illustrated 100 Greatest Sports Photos of All Time

Here's a preview of some of the pictures...

#Twitter #Sports #Hashtag

Top trends of 2012

I'm sure by now almost everyone has a Twitter account. The microblogging platform was launched in 2007 and now has millions of users. Due to it's success rate and popularity, it's no wonder business's are using it so heavily as a marketing tool. Twitter has also completely transformed the way we look at sports. Teams use it for play-by-play updates during a game, networks use it to post top stories, athletes use it to interact with fans... I could go on and on.

Another cool thing with Twitter is the hashtags (#). I know when I first started using Twitter it was hard for me to grasp the concept because I had never seen anything like it. So to put it simply, when a #hashtag is used in a tweet it filters and organizes all tweets that contain that particular #hashtag. The hashtags are utilized during sporting events to not only promote the event but to keep the viewers engaged. Often times the network will have an appropriate hashtag that users can use that is relevant to the event. They will also display the announcers user names so viewers can tweet them. I found a few examples of Twitter used during college basketball games. The top picture is of Jay Bilas who is an announcer for ESPN College Basketball. ESPN wanted users to tweet Jay questions during this segment of the game using the hashtag #AskBilas. The second picture is of Michael Gilchrist of Kentucky. In the picture he is shooting a foul shot. During this time the newtwork shows his name and his foul shooting stats. But if you look closely where the red circle is, you'll see his Twitter username.
 

Twitter also played a huge role during this years SuperBowl. There were over 24.1 million tweets sent during the game. The most popular hashtag used during the game was #SB47. Last year there were only 13.7 million SuperBowl related tweets. I found some information about the SuperBowl tweets on Twitters blog:

The moments generating the biggest peaks of Twitter conversation (measured in Tweets per minute, or TPM) during the game:
- Power outage: 231,500 TPM
- 108-yard kickoff return for Ravens TD by Jones: 185,000 TPM
- Clock expires; Ravens win: 183,000 TPM
- Jones catches 56 yard pass for Ravens TD (end of 2nd quarter): 168,000 TPM
- Gore TD for 49ers: 131,000 TPM


Overall, I think it's safe to say that Twitter is changing the world of sports. For the better. We are now able to be constantly engaged with the games, announcers, and players. It's amazing to see how big of an impact social media is on sports.

I'll leave you guys with a link to the Sports Illustrated Twitter Top 100 of 2012. See if your favorite athletes and/or announcers made the list!